Auction Site Question

[FB.]

Yesterday there was an item that interested me on a well-known auction site.

The starting bid was £14 (+£6.50 p&p).
Bidder #1 offered £14.
Bidder #2 offered £14.50.
I bid £16.50.
At the last moment, bidder #2 offered £17.50.

Bidder #2 therefore won the auction at £17.50 + £6.50p&p.

However, this morning I get an email notification that the seller (not the auction winner) re-listed the item as a 'buy it now' for £27 + £6.50 p&p.

I thought that if the winning bidder was unable/unwilling to complete the purchase, the item is offered to the second highest bidder (which would have been me).

Has the seller been naughty?
If they have been naughty, should I report them or should I just let it go?
The item wasn't something essential and I'm not bothered about losing the auction.

Thanks,
F

[Nicos]

Never used that site...but...in 'normal 'auction situations...did the item reach the reserve price?
Or...could there have been a second item the seller was offering, knowing there would be at least 2people who might start bidding again? (Hence the more greedy, higher price?)

Not sure how it works on there though....

[FB.]

Never used that site...but...in 'normal 'auction situations...did the item reach the reserve price?
Or...could there have been a second item the seller was offering, knowing there would be at least 2people who might start bidding again? (Hence the more greedy, higher price?)

Not sure how it works on there though....

There wasn't a reserve on the item.
It's 100% definitely the same item (items in a bundle) because the main item has several small items with it that are pretty random, and both the main and smaller items have unique 'wear and tear' marks.

[nickdub]

I may be wrong, but I think the seller has the option to offer the item at the price of the second highest bidder if they want to, but no compulsion to do so.

[Snadger]

I may be wrong, but I think the seller has the option to offer the item at the price of the second highest bidder if they want to, but no compulsion to do so.

Yes, and also if they have a few of the items they could offer the second and third bidder the same item at the price they bid.

Also if they have a few and find the first one didn't go for what they expected they will list the rest at a Buy It Now price they would be happy with.

[Chestnut]

Not sure what the auction site rules are. Though, personally, I would withdraw from any transaction where the selling price went up at the last minute (like when store checkouts don’t reflect the discounts advertised on the yellow stickers).

[FB.]

I may be wrong, but I think the seller has the option to offer the item at the price of the second highest bidder if they want to, but no compulsion to do so.

Thanks. That would seem to be a reasonable auction policy.
I just wondered whether the seller had been naughty/dishonest and, if so, whether the collective on here thought that it ought to be reported or let it go.

It sounds as if the seller hasn't done anything wrong.

[self-contained]

I would strongly advise avoiding the most well-known auction site. When everything goes smoothly, it's great. However, if anything goes wrong, their customer service is atrocious. I bought something on there earlier this year but the seller delayed sending the item for a really, really long time despite multiple emails. He then said it was because I hadn't sent information he needed (which I had, at checkout and then more than once afterwards). The item eventually arrived too late to be used for its intended purpose and I left negative feedback for the seller. I was then sent a vile, aggressive and abusive email by the seller who had access to my full name, address and phone number. The seller tried to get my feedback removed from the site , but customer services found in my favour. However, they didn't seem at all bothered about the abusive email. The seller is still selling through the site while I spent weeks worried that I was going to get a bomb through the letterbox given how vile the email I'd received had been.

[nickdub]

I use Ebay a fair bit for buying things and generally I put in a bid I'm happy paying for an item - if I get it for that its good, if not there are usually other opportunities to bid again on something similar. Very rare for me to revise my maximum bid upwards - I let the automated system take care of the details.

[Thelma Sanders]

The 2nd bidder was probably the seller himself (under an assumed name) trying to up the bidding. When this didn't work, he just relisted the item at the price he wanted in the first place.

Happens all the time, I try to let it go over my head, sooo not worth losing sleep over!

[FB.]

I would strongly advise avoiding the most well-known auction site. When everything goes smoothly, it's great. However, if anything goes wrong, their customer service is atrocious.

I only usually bid on things that I can't find elsewhere, usually because they haven't been produced for a few years or because they're not things that people often buy so aren't cost-effective for most 'shops' to keep in stock.

[FB.]

The 2nd bidder was probably the seller himself (under an assumed name) trying to up the bidding. When this didn't work, he just relisted the item at the price he wanted in the first place.

Happens all the time, I try to let it go over my head, sooo not worth losing sleep over!

Yes, it would be easy for someone to bump up the price via shill bidding and I think there's a reasonable chance that's what the seller or their 'mate' did last night.

I don't get too worked up about losing out on auction sites because even if there weren't shill bidders I still might not 'win' the auction even with my maximum bid.

As it happens, another item I bid on yesterday sold to me for £10.50 but I was prepared to pay £30 and had entered that as a maximum bid! However, it was 'collection only' so I can understand why a lot of people wouldn't want to bid.

[Thelma Sanders]

That's the way I look at it - sometimes I get lucky and sometimes I don't haha

[4Shoes]

It could be that the buyer has a history with the seller (non payment, items returned etc) and the transaction was not completed.

Look at the seller history and see if they make a habit of this. Don't think there is much you can do (because to raise a case, you would need to be the buyer), but you could go onto one of the site forums and search for advice.


Some interesting feedback on Money Savings site.

[Jay-ell]

I have once got counterfeit goods - complained, kept the goods, got the money back and the seller was banned.

Usually I calculate how much in total I want to pay, deduct the p&p from that and then bid that amount and let the site manage it. Sometimes if there's a number of similar items for auction I'll put a low holding bid on them a little more than the current so that they pop in in the bibbing list rather than the usually packed watched list. Then I adjust my bid on each item later in the auction. Sometimes I have ended up winning multiple copies of the item I want for little money.